1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a magnetic head, and to a magnetic head manufacturing apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a magnetic head, and to a magnetic head manufacturing apparatus, suitable for post mounting of a slider onto a suspension.
2. Related Background Art
Hard disk drives (hereinafter called HDDs) are increasing in capacity and are being made thinner. Together with these advances, magnetic heads (20%, 30% sliders) are also being made smaller.
When bonding a slider, on which a giant magneto-resistive (GMR) element is formed, to a suspension side with conventional processes of manufacturing magnetic heads, positioning of the slider is performed first using the external shape of the slider as a reference. An adhesive agent is applied to a rear surface side of the slider (side opposite to a side where an air bearing surface (ABS) is formed) after positioning the slider, and the rear surface side of the slider is made to contact distal ends of the suspensions, which have been positioned by using a tooling hole. The rear surface side of the slider and the distal ends of the suspensions are bonded through the adhesive. It should be noted that a suction nozzle slightly smaller than the surface area of the slider is generally used in moving the slider to the distal ends of the suspensions.
After bonding the slider and the suspension, thus forming a head gimble assembly (HGA), the HGA is assembled together with an actuator block, forming a head stack assembly (HAS, refer to JP 4-17174 A, FIGS. 4 and 5, for example).
However, problems like those described below exist with the conventional magnetic head manufacturing methods described above.
Namely, the processing time is long for the slider because the slider undergoes a process for assembling the HSA after undergoing a process for assembling the HGA. A danger thus exists that elements within the slider will be damaged due to electrostatic discharge (ESD) or the like. When a non-defective slider at the HGA assembly state becomes defective during processing, the defects in the slider are discovered after HSA assembly. Finished product yield consequently decreases, and there are cost increases.
Methods in which the slider is post mounted have been considered in order to resolve problems like those described above. However, a pair of suspensions that sandwich a magnetic disk face each other in the HSA. With a method in which attachment of the slider is performed from a vertical direction by using a conventional suction nozzle, there is a problem in that the suction nozzle interferes with the other facing suspension, and the slider thus cannot be attached.
In addition, when the slider is post mounted, contact surfaces are positioned on inner sides that face each other through a narrow gap in the pair of suspensions that are attached to an actuator block. Consequently, an adhesive cannot be applied by a conventionally used syringe or needle. Accordingly, it is necessary to apply the adhesive to the rear surfaces of the slider, not to the suspensions. However, the surfaces of the slider to which the adhesive is applied (namely, the rear surfaces) are opposite to the ABS. It is thus necessary to invert the orientation of the slider when applying the adhesive, and to return the slider to its original orientation when mounting the slider. However, operations to invert the slider lead to a manufacturing apparatus become complex, and the amount of slider handling operations increases. Consequently a risk that elements within the slider will be damaged due to ESD becomes greater.